Rancheria Prairie Cemetery
The graves are located on the east side of Rancheria Prairie, which is located east of Butte Falls. From central Butte Falls, drive about 1 mile east on the Fish Lake-Butte Falls Highway, to the intersection with the Butte Falls- Prospect Highway. Turn left onto the Butte Falls- Prospect Highway, and drive approximately 1.7 miles to the Rancheria Road. Turn right onto the Rancheria Road, and drive about 4 miles (passing the gun club on the left) until Road 32 takes off to the left. Stay to the right on Rancheria Road (also labeled Road 3220). Turn right after about ¼ mile, and park at the green metal gate (the one on the left). Climb over the metal gate and follow the dirt road, probably less than ½ mile, to the grave site.
This is private property. Contact the owner for permission to enter.
This site marks the location of the graves of 5 men murdered at the Rancheria Prairie sometime in April of 1859. We were directed to the grave site by Mike Witte of the BLM in Medford. He was not sure about the ownership of the land containing the graves, so we have to look into that to see if public access is permitted.
The site contains the remains of Eli Ledford, J. Brown, S.T. Conger, W.S. Probst and James Crow, all of the Rogue Valley. They were murdered while camping at the Rancheria Prairie waiting for the snow to melt so they could proceed to the Klamath area. The identity of the murderers was never determined.
Six pages of an article by Ann Weatherford are included with the photos. They contain interesting information.
